With career finally on proper track, Strikeforce's Roxanne Modafferi "riding the wave"

Just two months removed from the biggest fight of her life, Strikeforce title challenger Roxanne Modafferi is ready for the biggest fight of her life.

Not bad for someone that spent the better part of a year practically begging for a place to fight.

“For all of 2009, I was trying really hard to get a fight to get signed somewhere,” Modafferi recently told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio). “I just couldn’t get any offers. This is great now. I’m just riding the wave.”

Modafferi fought in May under the Moosin banner and earned an exciting split-decision win over Tara LaRosa. The victory avenged a 2006 loss to LaRosa and was the highest-profile win of Modafferi’s near-seven-year career. But the Japanese-based fighter put her celebrations on hold for a shot at Kaufman’s crown.

“I was going to have this huge party with all my friends and stuff because it was like the win of my life,” Modafferi said. “Two days later I got the offer to fight Sarah, so I was like, ‘I can’t really take the time off right now.'”

The fight is Modafferi’s third in 2010 after fighting just once in 2009 and twice in 2008. Modafferi was finding it so difficult to sign fights, she took to Internet message boards to track down opportunities. She’s not so sure the campaign was effective, but she is thrilled with the new fans her posts earned.

“I think it helped get me fans but not really (get fights),” Modafferi said. “I think I just happened to get the opportunity through chance. Erin Toughill dropped out of the fight with Marloes (Coenen), and then I got that fight and got signed to Strikeforce. Things just kind of went from there.”

Modafferi weighed 140 pounds for that 145-pound bout with Coenen in November 2009. Friday, she competes at her natural weight class of 135 pounds as she seeks to be the first fighter to defeat Kaufman.

Modafferi anticipates an exciting contest.

“I think we’re not going to back down from each other at all,” Modafferi said. “She hits really hard, and I always go for the finish. If it goes five rounds, we’re both going to be limping out of there.”

In the build-up to the fight, Kaufman has been vocal about her desire to step up from Strikeforce’s prospects-based “Challengers Series” events and fight on the organization’s larger events. Modafferi, meanwhile, says she’s just happy to have a place to fight.

“I’m grateful to even be fighting for Strikeforce at all, and in [Kaufman’s] interviews, she’s very respectful to me, of course, and Strikeforce,” Modafferi said. “But she also talks about how she wants to be on the main card, as in like CBS or whatever.

“I’m trying to reserve judgment on that.”

Instead, Modafferi is counting her blessings as she balances her full-time work as an English teacher in Japan with her fighting career, which has quickly reached full speed.

“I’d love to fight three or four times a year,” Modafferi said. “I’d love to fight more, but it’s hard to take time off from work. I only have so many vacation days, and my cousin is getting married at the end of the year.

“But fighting-wise, I’d love to fight four or five times a year.”

Modafferi can make that dream a reality starting Friday. Kaufman has the experience of a 25-minute win under her belt after looking unstoppable in a five-round victory over Takayo Hashi. Modafferi isn’t intimidated.

“It’s not going to go five rounds,” Modafferi said. “I’ll finish it before then.”

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